Femi Kuti: "Nigerian is a colonial identity"

[315]

Thoughts?

 

[Nemesis]

basically most Africans identify themselves by their tribe before their country.... nearly all African countries are artificial constructs

thats why when you get a lot of really dumb idiots .... and there are a lot of them on this forum who spout incredible crap you have to laugh at their ignorance...

being really honest the average American will never understand this, they are so westernised to the point of myopia, and a lot of their posts on Africa constantly highlights their complete ignorance to be honest

 

[Poh SIti Dawn]

basically most Africans identify themselves by their tribe before their country.... nearly all African countries are artificial constructs

thats why when you get a lot of really dumb idiots .... and there are a lot of them on this forum who spout incredible crap you have to laugh at their ignorance...

being really honest the average American will never understand this, they are so westernised to the point of myopia, and a lot of their posts on Africa constantly highlights their complete ignorance to be honest

.

even the idea of tribal identities themselves were somewhat constructed in order for Europeans to tax Africans and keep a stranglehold upon their communities.

 

[Nemesis]

.

even the idea of tribal identities themselves were somewhat constructed in order for Europeans to tax Africans and keep a stranglehold upon their communities.

nah .... tribes existed for thousands of years... language , cultures, kingdoms , laws etc....

 

[Poh SIti Dawn]

nah .... tribes existed for thousands of years... language , cultures, kingdoms , laws etc....

they existed, but not in the standard that colonialism set.

 

[Nemesis]

they existed, but not in the standard that colonialism set.

colonialism didnt set any standard, they had their own religions, rulers, language , government , customs , rule of law .... there was no standard for colonialists to set.....

 

[Um. Ghouls]

basically most Africans identify themselves by their tribe before their country.... nearly all African countries are artificial constructs

thats why when you get a lot of really dumb idiots .... and there are a lot of them on this forum who spout incredible crap you have to laugh at their ignorance...

being really honest the average American will never understand this, they are so westernised to the point of myopia, and a lot of their posts on Africa constantly highlights their complete ignorance to be honest

I read Nigerian forums

Can confirm they identify by tribe.

 

[Poh SIti Dawn]

colonialism didnt set any standard, they had their own religions, rulers, language , government , customs , rule of law .... there was no standard for colonialists to set.....

Colonialism did set standards, for example the women had a political voice (in Igbo tribes) before colonialism occurred, once colonialism did occur the women were removed from the picture. There's an article written about it in which they talk about the process of "sitting on a man" and the results being Englishmen opening fire and killing 50 women because they didn't understand this form of protest, in which the women had been participating in before they had arrived. They actually figured the men had set them up to it.

They had rulers, but they also had systems that were set up that focused more on majority vote, like a parliament. When Europeans arrived, they figured that it was all based on one leader and a "chief" and so they elected chiefs and put them into place so that they could collect taxes.

Rule of law was there, but again, colonialism also enforced another rule of law. And I know they had their own religions, they also had Islam as well, and Christianity became a fact after the British came.

 

[Poh SIti Dawn]

Colonial Penetration

Into this systc1n of diffuse authority, fluid and

informal leadership, shared rights of enforcement,

and a more or less stable balance of male and

female power, the British tried to introduce ideas

of ~'native administration" derived from colonial

experience with chiefs and emirs in northern

Nigeria. Southern Nigeria was declared a proteC'""

torate in 1900, but it was ten years before the

conquest was effective. As colonial power was

established in what the British perceived as a situ-
ation of "ordered anarchy, i• Igboland was divided

into Native Court Areas which violated the auton-
omy of villages by lumping 1nany unrelated vil-
lages into each court area. British District Officers

were to preside over the court<>i but were not

a!ways present as there were more courts than

officers. The Igbo membership vvas formed by

choosing from each village a "representative" \vho

\\-as given a \Varrant of office. These \\Tarrant

Chiefs were also constituted the Native Authority.

They were required to see that the orders of the

District Officers were executed in their own vil-·

Jages and were the only link between the colonial

power and the people. 27

It was a violation of Igbo concepts to have one

man represent the village in the first place and

more of a violation that he should give orders to

everyone else. The people obeyed the Warrant

Chief when they had to1 since British power backed

him up. In some places Warrant C:hiefs were line-
age heads or wealthy men \0

ers in the village. But in many places they \vere

simply ambitious, opportunistic young rnen who

put themselves forward as friends of the conquer-
ors. Even the relatively less corrupt Warrant Chief

was still, more than anything else, an agent of the

British.28

Click to expand...​

Here's a link to the study
"Sitting on a Man": Colonialism and the Lost Political Institutions of Igbo Women on JSTOR

It cost $48 bucks to purchase but I have the whole thing because of a class that I'm in. It really provides like some really cool narratives and studies and articles written. I wanna post some on here, and I think I will, I just wanna know if there's an interest

 

[JahFocus CS]

Great interview. Breh was getting on with his Pan-Africanism talk

I agree with him; none of the states in Africa correspond fully to precolonial indigenous polities. The states were colonial impositions in Africa (and in the Americas, Australia, & some parts of Asia); the prevailing political structures throughout the world today were basically imposed by cacs. However, I do not think that rejecting Nigerian or other identities is necessarily progressive. The breh in the video has the right idea about rejecting that identity and instead identifying a) as an African and b) by his traditional nation.

 

[AB Ziggy]

I read Nigerian forums

Can confirm they identify by tribe.

So reading about Nigeria confirms that it's all like that for the rest of Africa right?

 

[MikeyC]

basically most Africans identify themselves by their tribe before their country.... nearly all African countries are artificial constructs

thats why when you get a lot of really dumb idiots .... and there are a lot of them on this forum who spout incredible crap you have to laugh at their ignorance...

being really honest the average American will never understand this, they are so westernised to the point of myopia, and a lot of their posts on Africa constantly highlights their complete ignorance to be honest

The concept of tribalism isn't that difficult to grasp tbf since everybody (African or otherwise) identifies with one:

Family
Street
Hood
Community
Set
Gang
Sports team
etc.

 

[Nemesis]

The concept of tribalism isn't that difficult to grasp tbf since everybody (African or otherwise) identifies with one:

Family
Street
Hood
Community
Set
Gang
Sports team
etc.

you would be surprised...... people cant even grasp the concept that Africa isnt a single country

 

[Redeem87]

Good to know I'm not the only who thinks like this Shout out to my Africans . I guess I'm not the only black man to think the way I do

 

[The axe murderer]

Click to expand...​

Here's a link to the study
"Sitting on a Man": Colonialism and the Lost Political Institutions of Igbo Women on JSTOR

It cost $48 bucks to purchase but I have the whole thing because of a class that I'm in. It really provides like some really cool narratives and studies and articles written. I wanna post some on here, and I think I will, I just wanna know if there's an interest

Good link breh